Name: Toontown
Company: Disney
Overview: The colorful, cartoony Toontown's under threat of getting serious-- monochromatic corporate sour-pusses called Cogs are trying to take over, and only the Toons can stop them, using good old-fashioned gags like squirting flowers and cream-pie tosses. Resembling a full-scale multiplayer RPG for kids, Toontown also has Cog-free playspaces with chat, minigames and quests.
How it Works: Toontown runs in its own fullscreen program launched directly off of the web site (though it's also available in a retail box), and basic navigation like character movement is accomplished using the keyboard arrows. Menu options, which pop up when needed, can be selected from with point-and-click. Toontown's actually got a list of system requirements that, while not particularly hefty, are at least worth considering. First, while Toontown can work with Mac or PC, Internet Explorer is the only compatible browser (sorry, Firefox fans), requires the installation of certain ActiveX controls, and DirectX version 7.0 or newer. It also needs 100 megs of free memory, and a decent video card with 3D acceleration and at least 8 megs.
Payment Model: Formerly subscription-only, Toontown recently made the shift to an ad-supported free play option. Membership, which allows access to Toontown's full slate of play areas, quests and gags, costs $9.95 monthly, with a 6 month plan for $49.95 and a year's membership for $79.95.
Key Features:
-Versions produced for UK, Spain, France, Southeast Asia and Japan
-In-world chat is entirely pre-defined, except for "Secret Chat" unlocked via codes between individual users who know each other in real life
-No Player-versus-Player (PvP) available; characters cannot attack one another
-Recipient of WiredKids' 2005 "Safe Gaming Award"
Toontown: In-Depth Tour
Signup at the Toontown site is fairly standard-- choose an account name and a password, enter your birthday, and launch. If you're using a browser other than IE, or don't meet the system reqs (which we talked about last time) you may have an additional step or two to take, but other than that, the process is pretty direct. Toontown runs in its own fullscreen window, without the ability to minimize or switch among apps.
Like most online worlds, Toontown starts with the avatar creation process-- this one's colorful enough to put a smile on even the surliest of faces, with several different basic body models based on vintage-style Disney animals loosely resembling dogs, cats, bears and the like (and mice, of course). Users can mix and match three different body areas (head, torso and legs) in different colors and styles, and then customize the size proportions of each features for maximum toon-ish absurdity. Next, dress your Toon in clownish garb (girl clothes for a girl avatar, boy clothes for a male)-- since the colors and styles are fully customizable here, too. It wasn't long before I made an appropriately disproportionate, floppy-eared pink and purple cow (or maybe a horse)?
The naming process is fun, too. Names that users input will have to be run past moderators, but Disney offers a rich list of pre-made names. Since each name has three parts-- a kooky descriptor, a first name and a quirky last name-- the combinations are infinite. My cow-horse Toon ended up being named "Skinny Sandy Frinkelseed," which I thought suited her rather nicely, with her bulbous muzzle, round belly and long, twiggy legs.
The entire feel of Toontown actually resembles a kids' adventure PC game-- sandbox-style, with events and guidance-- more than the freeform 3D chat room that we generally think of when we think of kids' virtual worlds. The game starts with a very succinct tutorial-- not that much of one is needed, in a simple interface that relies largely on the keyboard arrows and a little point-and-click for menus. "Tutorial Tom" explains that Toontown is under threat of domination by straitlaced, monochrome suit-wearing baddies called Cogs, who want to subjugate Toontown's impractical architecture and bright colors into a world of gray banks and businesses. Tutorial Tom provides you with your first "gags"-- which are, exactly as they sound, classic cartoon objects like trapdoors, anvils and squirting flowers that are used to foil the cogs. And without further explanation, you try it for yourself. Pick a gag from your inventory and watch your toon beat a Cog by pie-ing him in the face.
The game provides a good deal of direction for play-- there's free movement, but you're always aware of what you're supposed to be doing. Earn the virtual currency, jellybeans, by playing games. The Toontown playground, in addition to shops and social areas, has a trolley that, when ridden, takes the user to one of a set of simple, user friendly-- but appropriately challenging-- minigames. The game you're presented with seems to be randomized, and there's no way to pick which one-- an effective way to ensure variety and to prevent users racking up currency too easily or quickly by exploiting the one game they're best at. The difficulty of the game depends on which neighborhood in Toontown you're playing.
Jellybeans can buy clothing, decorations and pets (called Doodles), in addition to new emotes and phrases for the avatar to perform. Disney-character NPCs can greet you by name when you pass them, but they can't converse extensively-- and despite the wide array of options available in the pre-set phrase menu, most kids seem to be questing and playing games on their own pretty exclusively, rather than hanging around talking.
Gameplay unfolds as you accept quests-- called "Toontasks" from NPC toons, who usually assign you a destination to visit, a Cog to defeat, or an item to retrieve. While on a Toontask, it's possible to deviate-- for example, to go to another location or play games instead-- but you're usually reminded of what you need to do. A menu in the form of a book lets you see what gags you're carrying and reminds you what quests you've accepted.
Toontown doesn't log you out-- your character will snooze in place if you're idle-- and seems to start you from your most recently-visited vicinity when you return.
Conclusion:
Toontown's IE-only fullscreen interface might cause issues for some-- compare to Nicktropolis or Habbo, which can run in any browser with only minimal reqs. Loading times are long, too-- both between areas and the five minutes or so of updates that occur with each login. As such, it's just slightly glitchier than a flash-only tends to be, with occasional freezes or significant lag; not intrusively problematic, though, Toontown's generally stable and responsive.
Technical issues aside, Toontown feels like an actual gaming experience. While most worlds geared for a similar audience put the majority of weight in the corner of social networking and virtual goods elements, Toontown feels like playing rather than 3D chat. It offers an impressive list of pre-set phrases (only subscribers can use the less restrictive feature) and a variety of emotes for every situation, but kids in Toontown seem to be playing games and following the instructions of copious NPCs in quests-- almost nobody hangs around talking. The level of proficiency in the Toontown users I encountered was strong, too-- there weren't any bumbling newbies with the telltale "crash into walls or type gibberish" behaviors.
The freedom of movement, and number of options for activities in Toontown doesn't make this adventure game-style structure seem too restrictive, though, or too unlike an online game. The variegated activities also allow players to customize their experience according to their proficiency level-- for example, younger kids who just want a few minigames and some cartoon characters can stay in the first neighborhood and simply ride the trolley, and yet there's plenty of room for older, more skillful players to confront more challenging games, engage in more complex activities (like gardening, pet-raising and flower-selling), and explore newer areas. That user-oriented customizable experience seems to be the primary characteristic Toontown takes from its online world format, and less the chat-room-with-minigames feel.
Toontown doesn't have a heavily branded feel, either. It's obviously uniquely Disney, but in a classic way. It would have been easy to create an all-style, no-substance game that hung mostly on the appearance of famous blockbuster film sprites (think Kingdom Hearts) and areas themed around upcoming CG animal movies, but Toontown's sincerity is a pleasant surprise.
And it's genuinely clever and funny, too-- the periphery's very well thought-out, down to the semi-Orwellian comedy elements around the primary antagonists, the grayscale Cogs. With names like Cashbot, Sellbot and Lawbot, they're amusing caricatures of big biz and "the norm," and the idea of kooky, floppy-handed Toons preserving their colorful spirit by perpetrating wacky gags on them has a cute individuality message.
[WorldsInMotion.biz covers Toontown-related news regularly as part of its daily virtual worlds news. Please click here to access an up-to-date list of all Toontown-related news on the site.]